Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

A complex network of Second World War barbed wire and scaffolding is visible on aerial photographs of 1942 as structures at the southern end of St Marys Bay. These features were mapped from aerial photographs as part of the South East RCZAS NMP project.

Monument Types

• BARBED WIRE OBSTRUCTION (Modern - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)
• BEACH DEFENCE (Modern - 1939 AD to 1945 AD)

Full description

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These interconnecting linear defences are centred at TR 0904 2718, and extend across an area measuring approximately 330m along the seafront from the Rugby Clubs Camp in the south, to the Pumping Station in the north. In places the defences consist of three parallel lines of barbed wire. In others, they comprise a line of scaffolding, flanked by a line of barbed wire. Several branches of both scaffolding and barbed wire extend inland towards contemporary pillboxes (Monument Numbers 1535203, 1535202). At the northern end of these defences, two parallel lines of barbed wire leading inland appear to run across the top of trenches (Monument Number 1535587) connecting a further pillbox (Monument Number 1535204) with an Emergency Coastal Battery (Monument Number 1485888).

By the time of the vertical aerial photograph of 1946, all the barbed wire and scaffolding appears to have been removed (1-2).

<1> RAF, 1942, NMR RAF/AC81 174-5 26-AUG-1942 (Photograph). SWX23894.

<2> RAF, 1946, NMR RAF/106G/UK/1439 3024-5 30-APR-1946 (Photograph). SWX23809.

Sources and further reading

Related records